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Vehicles
Ground Vehicles Transport Truck The truck is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. This particular model and make has been widely used by various organisations in America, including the US Army and NW Disposal Systems, along with the Brotherhood of Steel. It is built in a cab-over-engine arrangement with two large headlights, a fuel-cell powered engine and three axles. It was produced as a standardised cutaway chassis, which was then, depending on the need of the buyer, modified. As such, two primary models exist - a semi-trailer truck (often found with the accompanying trailer) and flatbed truck. The US Army used a great deal of these trucks to transport soldiers and goods over long distances. As Army vehicles, they were painted olive drab and bore a serial number in addition to the Army's insignia. Private companies also employed this type of vehicle, though most used the truck and trailer model. Flatbeds were used primarily by delivery companies for various purposes, from nuclear waste to uranium pellets. After the war, these sturdy vehicles continue to be used. While the scarcity of available replacement parts (most importantly tires, windshields and engine parts) limits their usefulness somewhat, they nonetheless play an important part in the supply systems of various factions, e.g. the New California Republic, which even has a dedicated truck repair depot at Camp McCarran. The Boomers appear to have several trucks in fairly good condition parked at Nellis Air Force Base. Infantry Fighting Vehicle The IFV is a six wheeled vehicle designed for supporting infantry operations and transporting soldiers through the battlefield in comfort. It is a fairly tall design, with a forward driver's position, sitting over the primary engine, in a compartment isolated from the troop section. The vehicle can carry six soldiers and two power armour units in reasonable comfort in this section, with a note that power armour units must stand for transportation. For defence, it is provided with a 105mm gun in an autonomous dorsal turret and a pair of ball-mounted 76mm guns to the sides of the driver's cabin, giving it its distinctive whiskers. The IFV could be used for a variety of purposes, such as transportation or, if fitted with a gurney and other necessary equipment, a medical evacuation vehicle. Due to its shielding, it could also be used to transport radioactive waste, for example, in decontamination operations. M4 Sherman Medium Tank Though the Heavy Tank would serve as the primary tank of the US Military and its descendent, the Brotherhood of Steel, the aforementioned Heavy Tank was expensive to manufacture and maintain, especially at the height of the resource wars. In order to supplement their limited number of armoured vehicles, they'd employ the use of the significantly cheaper and reliable M4 Sherman Medium Tank. Despite their impressive destructive capabilities, firing 105mm Howitzer Shells and being outfitted with a plethora of secondary armaments, it would serve as a support unit for other units, being overshadowed by its more durable counterpart. Despite this, enough of these vehicles have survived the atomic war to eventually be utilised by the varying factions of the Wasteland, particularly, the Brotherhood of Steel and the New California Republic. Heavy Tank The United States military and eventually, the Brotherhood of Steel has also utilised heavy duty conventional main battle tanks. The heavy tank is a behemoth powered by a nuclear engine which employs a pair of tracked chassis using the poorly-chosen leaf spring suspension, with a single turret mounted on the top. Its key advantage is firepower: The heavy tank is equipped with a pair of large-caliber 140mm cannons using conventional ammunition. All together, the tank weighed over sixty tons, making it unusable in marshlands and other soft terrains, despite the reliability that allowed for a single soldier to hot-wire them and restore them to working order. It has no visible secondary armament. The vehicle bears some resemblance, in turret shape at least, to the M46 Patton which was used by the U.S. Army during the early years of the Korean War, also sporting a similar commander's cupola. Unusually, it appears that parts of the power plant on the engine deck would interfere with the movement of the turret, preventing it from rotating a full 360 degrees. Aircraft XVB02 Vertibird Vertibird is a designation for a series of VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) craft. These multipurpose tiltwing aircraft were developed by the United States military and rapidly became a primary gunship and transport aircraft. After the defeat of the Enclave on the west coast and sacking of Navarro, the NCR captured several Vertibirds and started to operate them in a cargo transport role. One is known to have been converted to a presidential transport, labeled Bear Force One. It is unknown if the West Coast Brotherhood of Steel also recovered Vertibirds from Navarro. Vertibirds are known to have appeared on the East Coast in 2277, when the Enclave came out of hiding to secure Project Purity. It is unknown if the Vertibirds were brought over by the Autumn Senior, when he led the Enclave forces east, or had been sequestered there by the Enclave before the War. Following the conflict between the East-Cost Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave, the former of the two would come to seize and eventually incorporate Vertibirds into their faction following their victory at Nellis Airforce Base. The Prydwen The Prydwen is a modified and armoured Brotherhood of Steel airship that flies throughout the skies of the Commonwealth. The vessel serves multiple roles for the Brotherhood, including those of aircraft carrier, command centre, clinic, personnel quarters, equipment maintenance bay and research facility. It is, for all intents and purposes, an airborne military base. The Prydwen was constructed at Adams Air Force Base over a period of six years. It took an initial two years to collect the materials necessary and another four to actually construct the airship, and by 2287 had been in service for five years.1 It weighs forty thousand tons, as noted by Lancer Captain Kells and Elder Maxson. Before the journey to the Commonwealth, its original power plant has been replaced with an updated plant pulled from an old aircraft carrier. The airship is filled with hydrogen, as stated during the quest Airship Down. Four pylons attached to the ship's flight deck carry a single jet engine each, being responsible for controlling the Prydwen's altitude and help to keep the ship aloft. There are four docking hooks for Brotherhood-modified VB-02 Vertibird gunships attached to the airship's hull. Vertibirds are accessible via the flight deck. Due to the combustible nature of hydrogen, the ship itself is not capable of combat. Though originally in the possession of the East-Coast Brotherhood of Steel, it has since become the Headquarters of Maxsons Loyalists.